A period of change

Appointed as head coach back in June 2015 and now into his 15th month in charge, Carlos Carvalhal has reflected over his time at Hillsborough.

“What a big change in 15 months, what a big change,” he told swfc.co.uk.

Taking charge of his first game in the 2-0 win over Bristol City on the opening day of the 2015/16 campaign, there has been plenty of progress since and plenty to be excited by for the future.

In an exclusive interview with the Owls’ official website he said:

“I think the previous season we only had four or five wins at home, the chairman was very important, he changed the pitch and we brought in new players.

“We changed the style of play and I am so proud to see 25,000 fans enjoying our games and the way that we play.

“Not just our fans, often if you speak with the opposition coaches about our team, they often talk about us very well about the way we play.

“Some of them say they enjoy the way we play and this is very important to us because they are coaches, they understand football and they know how difficult we can be for them.”

From the outset, one of Carlos’ main objectives was to entertain the fans by playing attacking, aggressive and positive football.

On that front, there has certainly been no lack of entertainment both at Hillsborough and on the road and Carlos continued:

“In 15 months, we have beaten Arsenal here, we have beaten Newcastle outside in the cup, we achieved the play-offs, we stayed in the play-offs after beating Brighton, we lost in the final but overall we did absolutely fantastic.

“We have more players in national teams, our young players in the first team like Joe Wildsmith and Cameron Dawson and we put some players in the cup this season like George Hirst and Jack Stobbs.

“The chairman, the fans, the staff have changed a lot of things but to me the most important is if our fans are happy.

“If the fans are happy and enjoying our work then I am happy.

“I think the best will come. I think we will grow up. But when I look back on the last 15 months – which is a short time – a lot has changed including expectations.

“Everybody must keep their feet on the floor and don’t fly because if you are flying, you can come down very easy.